A diversity of life thrives in the littoral zone—a thin strip of coastline between high and low watermarks. As the operating metaphor for our online journal, it refers to that part of Key West routinely overrun by the tide of literature, and to the rich life of letters in this island city.

L I T T O R A L

Feeding the Muse: Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway's Catch of the Day - Sailfish. Ernest and son Jack in Key West, 1929.

As we prepared for “The Hungry Muse,” our 29th annual Seminar, in January of 2011, we consulted the letters of the great writers of Key West’s past to learn what they ate in the island city and create a selection of historically plausible menus. First up: Ernest Hemingway.

Like Hemingway’s prose style, his diet in Key West was composed of basic elements and depended upon an active sporting life. He spent weeks fishing and hunting shorebirds in the Marquesas and Tortugas, clusters of islands 30-60 miles west of Key West, and the quarry from these trips seems to have been his culinary staple. He was also an attentive gardener, planting fig, coconut, lime, and avocado trees on the grounds of his house on Whitehead Street, and joking to John Dos Passos that they were fertilized with the “ton of crap” he’d cut out from each day’s first drafts. “I wish you could plant a gin tree,” he joked to Maxwell Perkins, and in fact he hunted for booze too, once robbing the cargo from a reef-wrecked ship that had been carrying a shipment of liquor and wine.

A locavore before his time, Hemingway’s menu makes certain demands on the home chef. Consider it an invitation to adventure.

~ ERNEST HEMINGWAY’S MENU FOR THE MUSE ~
“We’ve been living on shorebirds, snipe and plover, and doves… Started out on absinthe, drank a bottle of good red wine with dinner, shifted to vodka … and then battened it down with whiskys and sodas until 3 am. Feel good today. But not like working.”

DRINKS: Absinthe

FOOD & DRINK: Fresh figs, Archibald MacLeish’s special ham, and Champagne. “I never ate anything better than the ham… Truly not only best ham but one of the very finest, rarest fine thing we ever ate.” (sic)

* Not only because it is so expensive to purchase, but because it will taste much better, we recommend salvaging the Chateau Margaux from a shipwreck where possible. As for the now-endangered species of fowl Hemingway shot in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge, you may wish to find an alternative. The fish, though high in mercury, remain plentiful. Bon Appetit!

Leave a Reply

Littoral Sidebar

Littoral is our year-round online voice. Check in often for news about the upcoming Seminar, exclusive interviews, pictures from past events, new additions to our Audio Archives, essays, and all manner of dispatch from Key West's rich life of letters. Littoral is created by Arlo Haskell; send email to arlo[at]kwls[dot]org

Each January, the Seminar explores a different literary theme through lectures, panel presentations, readings, informal gatherings, and discussions. In January 2015 we celebrate our 33rd year with How the Light Gets In: Literature of the Spirit.